Measurement technology for various key parameters in harsh environments (e.g., high-temperature and biomedical applications) continues to be limited. Wireless passive LC resonant sensors offer long service life and can be suitable for harsh environments because they can transmit signals without battery power or wired connections. Consequently, these devices have become the focus of many current research studies. This paper addresses recent research, key technologies, and practical applications relative to passive LC sensors used to monitor temperature, pressure, humidity, and harmful gases in harsh environments. The advantages and disadvantages of various sensor types are discussed, and prospects and challenges for future development of these sensors are presented.

A high-sensitivity, low-cost, ultrathin, hollow fiber micro bubble structure was proposed; such a bubble can be used to develop a high-sensitivity strain sensor based on a Fabry–Perot interferometer (FPI). The micro bubble is fabricated at the fiber tip by splicing a glass tube to a single mode fiber (SMF) and then the glass tube is filled with gas in order to expand and form a micro bubble. The sensitivity of the strain sensor with a cavity length of about 155 μm and a bubble wall thickness of about 6 μm was measured to be up to 8.14 pm/με.

Aiming at detecting high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) fields, this letter reports on a novel in-line silica capillary tube all-silica fiber-optic Fabry-Perot (ILSCT-ASFP) interferometric sensor fabricated by splicing a commercially available silica capillary tube to two single-mode fibers. The experimental results show that such a novel ILSCT-ASFP interferometric sensor with a cavity length of ∼60.76 μm has an excellent fringe visibility of up to ∼20 dB, and the fringe visibility is still good when the cavity length extends up to ∼1031.07 μm. The measured wavelength-temperature sensitivity of 0.000858 nm/°C shows that the wavelength drift of the fabricated ILSCT-ASFP interferometric sensor towards temperature is extremely low. Meanwhile, the measurement of HIFU fields by this novel sensor is demonstrated, and the experimental results indicate that the signal-to-noise ratio of the sensing system for sensing a 0.93 MHz HIFU field with a pressure of 2.69 MPa in the focus area can reach 42.8 dB. The corresponding noise equivalent pressure is 0.0194 MPa, and the calculated acoustic sensitivity is 65.4 mV/MPa over a 2.5 MHz measurement bandwidth.

In this study, a novel batch-producible fiber-optic Fabry-Perot (FP) pressure sensor based on a low-temperature co-fired ceramic technology is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for high-temperature applications. The sensor is fabricated by inserting a well-cut single-mode fiber (SMF) into a zirconia fiber ferrule, followed by insertion of the overall structure into an alumina sensor head. The FP cavity in the sensor is formed by placing the end face of the SMF in parallel to the diaphragm. The external pressure can be detected by demodulating the FP cavity length of the sensor. A theoretical analysis indicates that the pressure sensitivity can be designed flexibly by adjusting the parameters of the ceramic diaphragm, radius, and thickness. Experimental results demonstrate that the pressure sensor exhibits a high linear sensitivity of approximately 0.1 μm/kPa at room temperature in the pressure range up to 160 kPa. The repeatability error and nonlinear error of three repeatable experiments are approximately 2.60% and smaller than 0.101%, respectively. The temperature coefficient and coefficient of the pressure-sensitivity changes with temperature are 0.023 μm/°C and 0.205 nm/(kPa°C) in the temperature range of 20°C-300°C.

A diaphragm-free fiber-optic Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometric gas pressure sensor is designed and experimentally verified in this paper. The FP cavity was fabricated by inserting a well-cut fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and hollow silica tube (HST) from both sides into a silica casing. The FP cavity length between the ends of the SMF and HST changes with the gas density. Using temperature decoupling method to improve the accuracy of the pressure sensor in high temperature environments. An experimental system for measuring the pressure under different temperatures was established to verify the performance of the sensor. The pressure sensitivity of the FP gas pressure sensor is 4.28 nm/MPa with a high linear pressure response over the range of 0.1–0.7 MPa, and the temperature sensitivity is 14.8 pm/°C under the range of 20–800 °C. The sensor has less than 1.5% non-linearity at different temperatures by using temperature decoupling method. The simple fabrication and low-cost will help sensor to maintain the excellent features required by pressure measurement in high temperature applications.

Using arc discharge technology, we fabricated a fiber-optic Fabry-Perot (FP) pressure sensor with a very low temperature coefficient based on a microbubble that can be applied in a high-temperature environment. The thin-walled microbubble can be fabricated by heating the gas-pressurized hollow silica tube (HST) using a commercial fusion splicer. Then, the well-cut single-mode fiber (SMF) was inserted into the microbubble, and they were fused together. Thus, the FP cavity can be formed between the end of the SMF and the inner surface of the microbubble. The diameter of the microbubble can be up to 360 μm with the thickness of the wall being approximately 0.5 μm. Experimental results show that such a sensor has a linear sensitivity of approximately -6.382  nm/MPa, -5.912  nm/MPa at 20°C, and 600°C within the pressure range of 1 MPa. Due to the thermal expansion coefficient of the SMF being slightly larger than that of silica, we can fuse the SMF and the HST with different lengths; thus, the sensor has a very low temperature coefficient of approximately 0.17 pm/°C.

This paper focuses on the design and fabrication of a high-temperature piezoresistive pressure sensor with an integrated signal-conditioning circuit, which consists of an encapsulated pressure-sensitive chip, a temperature compensation circuit and a signal-conditioning circuit. A silicon on insulation (SOI) material and a standard MEMS process are used in the pressure-sensitive chip fabrication, and high-temperature electronic components are adopted in the temperature-compensation and signal-conditioning circuits. The entire pressure sensor achieves a hermetic seal and can be operated long-term in the range of −50 °C to 220 °C. Unlike traditional pressure sensor output voltage ranges (in the dozens to hundreds of millivolts), the output voltage of this sensor is from 0 V to 5 V, which can significantly improve the signal-to-noise ratio and measurement accuracy in practical applications of long-term transmission based on experimental verification. Furthermore, because this flexible sensor’s output voltage is adjustable, general follow-up pressure transmitter devices for voltage converters need not be used, which greatly reduces the cost of the test system. Thus, the proposed high-temperature piezoresistive pressure sensor with an integrated signal-conditioning circuit is expected to be highly applicable to pressure measurements in harsh environments.

A reflective intensity-modulated fiber-optic sensor based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for pressure measurements is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The sensor consists of two multimode optical fibers with a spherical end, a quartz tube with dual holes, a silicon sensitive diaphragm, and a high borosilicate glass substrate (HBGS). The integrated sensor has a high sensitivity due to the MEMS technique and the spherical end of the fiber. The results show that the sensor achieves a pressure sensitivity of approximately 0.139 mV/kPa. The temperature coefficient of the proposed sensor is about 0.87 mV/°C over the range of 20 °C to 150 °C. Furthermore, due to the intensity mechanism, the sensor has a relatively simple demodulation system and can respond to high-frequency pressure in real time. The dynamic response of the sensor was verified in a 1 kHz sinusoidal pressure environment at room temperature.